People do not become ignorant because of the government. I feel that they become ignorant because the people around them are ignorant of what’s going on, and, that they are ignorant of all of the different facets that make up the world. Government is not the cause of the ignorance. I believe the cause goes far beyond government. I hope that in my argument that I prove that ignorance is nonetheless not caused by our own government—but of several different reasons—of our own stereotypes we have of others, of our own failing education system, from all of these distractions we have around us (like Hollywood movies and our favorite TV shows), the mass media, because of people having to go to work. I believe that it’s part of our culture to deny truth and to deny reality. I’ll admit, that a portion of the ignorance people show is because of what politicians say and them blindly believing it—but I’m not going to buy that argument right now because look at George W Bush—his approval rating was 32%-- it seems like not too many people believed in what he was doing, or, blindly believed his statements.
I believe that a large portion of the ignorance is caused by the fact that people have something called a job. Having a job is a great way to keep people enslaved I guess. I mean, they’re not really enslaved because they are allowed to do what they want. But, in reality when you think about it—they’re kept from the real truths about what underlie within the system when they do their job—they don’t have the time for political stuff and they don’t have the time to see what the government is doing to them because they aren’t aware of it because they have so much other stuff to do. When people come back from work they are exhausted. All they want to do is television. They would rather watch television than to read a book. I want to point out this shocking statistic about the United States of America. People watch an average of 4.5 hours of television per day (www.answerbag.com... ). It’s rather shocking. According to this one survey, unhappy people tend to watch television more.
'TV doesn't really seem to satisfy people over the long haul the way that social involvement or reading a newspaper does,' says researcher John P. Robinson. 'It's more passive and may provide escape — especially when the news is as depressing as the economy itself. The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise.' Unhappy people also liked their TV more:science.slashdot.org.../11/15/192222 . I do not believe that the government is responsible for that. I believe that these corporations just want our attention and that the television people are no different. They want our attention just as much as the others. I think the unfortunate thing is that the television people keep the unhappy people under their control by showing all of those junk shows like American Idol, Lost, and a few other shows that keep them satisfied. These unhappy people are kept happy because of these shows on television, I guess, that makes them less wanting to rebel because it makes them more passive. It also makes them less critical thinkers. It also erodes at their awareness. If they keep showing escapist behavior all the time like that they’ll never be aware of what’s going on.
I’ll admit that part of the ignorance comes from the campaign season. But, does this come from the government or is it part of our society? It depends on whether you see what happened during the election as a conspiracy to rile people up to support Barack Obama. I think people were just wanting a change. I think the people who became ignorant of Barack Obama and John McCain did not become ignorant of the two of them because of the government. I felt the mass media played a huge role in the brainwashing of the mass population to get them to support both candidates as much as they did. Bloggers also played a role in this. People were just not being themselves. They became ignorant for a while. I would rather blame the MSM more than the government here for the ignorance. I will later show throughout my argument how the mainstream media uses different kind of rhetoric to keep people thinking in partisan ways. They want partisanship—it’s good for their viewership. MSNBC and Fox News don’t care about what people think of them—they just want the ratings. What better way to do that than to attract the ignorant people of the Democratic and the Republican party? I will also show throughout my argument how the mainstream media rallies for public support of the war. I do not believe that the government is directly responsible for this. I believe that the MSM plays off the ignorance people have.
I think that a lot of our ignorance comes from Hollywood movies, TV shows, and stereotypes we have. I’m not talking about political ignorance here—well in a way I am. But, when you think about it—people are kept in the dark because it’s natural for people to have stereotypes of other people and things. I believe that television and movies keeps people in the dark about the reality of certain things. There are so many movies on aliens and UFOs while yes—more people are likely to believe they’re out there- but I doubt that many of those people would believe me if I told them about all of the incidents in Stephenville, Texas. I do not believe people would be able to truly understand the autocracies that Hitler committed. I feel that the way the MSM portrays him is less bad than how he actually is. They are ignorant of the experiment he carried out.
What about school? Teachers who teach in school only teach the way they know how to. It is a result of our failed education system. Teachers don’t learn all they need to teach and thus are kept with keeping telling people the same lies, not telling people all sides of a history, or only teaching people one specific aspect of something—not explaining things well, etc. There aren’t that many good teachers in public high-schools. Yes- people learn—but the fact that people lose interest in the subject after they take the class is proof that teachers aren’t that good at teaching their subject in primary education. And what about their teaching methods? I would argue that it is the teaching methods of teachers in primary education that keeps people ignorant. People expect life to be like rote learning. They just do the same thing every time because that’s how they learn to get the right answer. They just repeat. Is this government caused? No. Teachers are in control of their own actions and if they don’t know how to teach a kid that’s their fault. If they don’t teach a kid how to think critically I do not believe that is the fault of the government although they may capitalize on less educated people. I would argue that it is the fault of the teachers themselves.
Lastly, I believe that lots of people are kept ignorant because of work and other distractions around them. They never see the truth because it is blinded from them. The moment people become a sheep, or, shall I say, the moment people become braindead, is the moment they lose their chance at ever waking up. These people just like going with the flow. They like doing what they’re told. They don’t disobey. People supposedly don’t have the time to. They are satisfied with their movies and their MP3 players. They are satisfied with how society is. These types of people are not kept ignorant from the government but because of their own lives they live. I do believe that if they were showed how their lives could be better I bet they would take actions to do so. If these people were shown the facts about what our government has been doing to us the last 50 years or so I believe that these people would start to take action. I think that the 2008 election was a start. People showed they wanted a change. Now that needs to happen more often and far more frequently.
So, I believe that the government doesn’t sponsor ignorance. I think they merely just take advantage of it. As a result of all the ignorance they are able to make their decisions secretly unbeknownst to the masses. That is why they are able to do what they want to do. But I do not believe the government wants a society of non-critical thinkers and I do not believe that the government is at fault. I believe it is the fault of the collective society as a whole.
Allow me to ask my Socratic question #1:
If it is the government's fault that people are ignorant-- what are they doing to keep us ignorant-- and just how much influence do they have?
